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Mods to help with seat time
NB: Originally posted elsewhere on the Global Riders Network and appears via syndication.
I'm after some advice on what mods i can do to my current ride to make it more suited for longer rides, doing more road rides with open flat fire trails..
Current bike is a Merida Matts lite XT
http://www.merida.com.au/2013-bikes/mtb-hardtail...
I have already bought some fast touring tyres & looking at a carbon flat bar option.
Does anyone have any other advice or help on what mods will help with long seat time?
Thanks
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A good pair of cycling shorts, and gloves have helped me with saddle time.
Cheers already got them and makes a big difference.
Flicking through some forum members pics of their bikes i have seen a few 26' HT converted to 29' with road rims laced to MTB hubs
Pretty much trying to end up with a cyclocross bike with out buying a new bike...
Cheers
If your thinking of 50km+ it pays to use a little or a lot of lube on ya bits I'm using paw paw extract at the moe & it's cheapish
Happy arse, happy rider. Make sure your seat is comfortable when your sitting on the road for a while.
Other than that , I'd consider a new wheelset for that bike
My past 3 commuter bikes have been 26" hard tail frames with 700c road wheels. Ends up like a flat bar road bike but basically feels like a very very fast mtb.
More comfortable than a road bike and almost as fast.... ( well... if you put a decent rider on it...) very efficient and eats up the miles.
CB
Having used 700c on my 26er for commuting, I've swung back to using 26" rims with low tread height 2.1" knobblies.
Yes, it's a tad more effort but the suburban back roads on some of my route have spectacularly poor pavement and I've damaged the 700c rims. Good quality Mavic ones, too, laced by reputable builders.
The low knobblies are more forgiving for doing stuff like riding down stairs, practicing step-ups up kerbs, riding off kerbs, and doing other things that make an otherwise boring commute more amusing, and they don't pinchflat or ding your rim on potholes.
If you're mixing it in a group ride with roadies, sure, but otherwise I'm sticking with the fat tyres for now. More effort = better training. Maybe.
Looking at the crank bros 29er wheel sets on special atm, will they be a direct swap on my 26 frame?
Also can anyone recommend a good LSB that will help with mods & not push a sale of just a new bike?
Before looking at bike parts what nicks (lycra shorts) are you rolling with?
Decent from my observations generally retail over $100. Quality brands include Assos and you can pay a lot for them (although they probably are a lot cheaper than the other options you are looking at).
Also butt cream, are you using any? If not Assos again make some really good stuff or Aussie Butt Cream seems to work well.
Ok spoke to a few bike shops on my ride today and can't fit 29ers physically won't fit but getting some light weight 26ers Spank with hope hubs made up to run my new road rubber.
New seat will be next..
As for nicks i use a pair of Bellwether http://www.bellwetherclothing.com/bellwether/men...
No creams as i don't find the need, no chaffing just a numb butt.
Most important thing for seat time is just that....the saddle.
I found that my fizik saddle was narrow and great for throwing around on trails for a couple of hours.
After three hours or more it was killing my sit bones.
A wider saddle was the best fit for me.
What did you end up getting?
Prologo Scratch Pro Ti 1.4 Saddle - 143mm wide $120 from memory but you can pick them up for $80 on crc atm.
Did my first ride on this at the Highland fling last year. With a time of 9.5hrs this saddle saved my hide!
Another saddle option is to go to a Specialized store and sit on one of their ass-o-meters and work out what width in their BG range suits you best.
I have a cro-mo railed Spesh saddle that came with one of my bikes and it is probably the most comfortable one I own.
The problem for me is, with the extra width I bang the inside of my thighs on it whenever I huck off log or rock drops and end up with lots of bruises. Well, lots more than normal. So it's been parked in favour of the Fizik Gobi. That's a bit of an arse anvil, but good knicks solve most of the sore sitbones on longer rides and you do become acclimatised after awhile.
I use Assos chamois cream. Works a treat.
I just came back from a 9 day stage race in South Africa which I did on my hardtail 29er (against most recommendations to use a dually). About 2 weeks before I left for the race, I bought the Syntace P6 Carbon HiFlex seatpost after reading a number of great reviews on it. I was a bit suspicious about the claims, but was more worried about my back and arse than I was suspicious
but I can now state that it was a great buy, and I will be buying another one for my roadie. Minter (Warthog on NOBMOB) who was my riding buddy and is a better technical rider and the stronger of the two of us came away from the race saying he needs a 29er dually (he too was on a hardtail, but with the stock aluminium seatpost and was standing often while I was still seated)
Here are some reviews:
http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/component...
http://road.cc/content/review/76342-syntace-p6-f...
http://reviews.mtbr.com/syntace-p6-carbon-hiflex...